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PLASTIC POLLUTION IN THE OCEANS

13 October 2010, 7pm
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD
DR SIMON BOXALL 
PETER DAVIS

DAVID SHUKMAN (chair)

Our throw away society is polluting large areas of the world's oceans with marine litter, including plastics, threatening marine life and food chains. 

How did it get there?

What are the practical solutions?

Is it time to re-evaluate waste as a resource?

DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD

David de Rothschild (32 – United Kingdom): David is an adventurer, environmentalist and the founder of myoo.com a group that primarily uses exploration and storytelling as a way to give nature a voice. David’s passion and commitment to action has seen him ski, dogsled and kite to both the North and South poles as well as visiting some of the world’s most remote and fragile regions in order to bring wide-spread media attention and, moreover, solutions to urgent global environmental issues.

From March to July 2010, David and a crew of five undertook the latest expedition, the Plastiki, sailing across the Pacific Ocean on a catamaran made buoyant by 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles to beat waste. (www.theplastiki.com). David is recognized as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Clean up the World Ambassador, UNEP Climate Hero and a Young Global Leader respectively.

 The Plastiki         Adventure Ecology     

DR SIMON BOXALL

Simon is a lecturer in Oceanography at the University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre (UK).  He has worked on secondment for projects for UNESCO, The European Union Research Centre, The World Bank, The British Council, and European Space Agency over the years.  Current research covers a spectrum of topics from climate change in the ocean to coastal dynamics and pollution, and he has carried out various studies on plastics in the oceans.  

One of his more worrying finds was the high level of plastic rubbish on a remote Arctic island over 1000km from the nearest town or village, taken there from all countries bordering the Atlantic by the ocean currents.  

Simon has a responsibility for public understanding and has been involved in documentaries for Channel 4, Sky, BBC, National Geographic and Discovery Channel. He regularly appears on radio
and TV news and current affairs broadcasts across the World
relating to a broad range of ocean, coastal and climate issues. 

 National Oceanography Centre 

PETER DAVIS OBE

Peter has been the Director General of the British Plastics Federation from 1 October 1997.  Before that he was the Chief Executive of Incpen (The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) from October 1993 - September 1997.

He has previously held the following positions: Director of Marketing; Membership and International Affairs at the Royal Institute of British Architects; Head of Home Affairs in the Conservative Research Department; Special Adviser to Environment Secretary Kenneth Baker MP. He has held management positions in the following companies: 3M Medical Products, Dylon International and has also worked for INCO and Metal Box.

Peter is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Horners, the plastics industry’s Livery company in London.  In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2009 became the Chairman of the Alliance of Industries Association (nine chemical use trade associations) and in 2010 was appointed a Vice Chairman of the Construction Products Association.  He has also held the position of Deputy Chairman of the Enterprise Forum (a business contact group with Coalition Ministers) since 1997.  

Peter is half Danish and was a Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Copenhagen from 1997-2007.  He takes an active interest in anti-littering campaigns and was a Director and Trustee of the Tidy Britain Group from 1996-2006.

 British Plastics Federation        Plastics 2020 Challenge        

DAVID SHUKMAN

David is the environment & science correspondent for BBC News, regularly reports for the Ten O’Clock News and other programmes from locations as diverse as the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the Amazon. 

In the past year David made the first live broadcasts from several remote locations in the Pacific - the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, threatened by rising sea-levels, Midway Atoll, engulfed by a rising tide of plastic waste, and the Galapagos Islands, scene of Charles Darwin’s important work on evolution.  

He is one of the few reporters to have undertaken a dozen assignments to the polar regions including such landmark expeditions as travelling through the fabled North West Passage and landing by ski-plane on an ice island a few hundred miles from the North Pole.

David has been a frontline BBC correspondent for the past twenty years, covering the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, pivotal events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, and disasters and wars in Africa and Asia. 

 Reporting live from the end of the world

His latest book is Reporting Live from the End of the World - describes what it’s like to report on some of the most dramatic, and disturbing, changes of recent years - from sailing through the fabled Northwest Passage of the rapidly warming Arctic to encountering the tide of plastic waste fouling the Pacific; from wading through the mud of flooded Bangladesh to witnessing the advance of the Kalahari Desert.